Scrooge is alive and well......

The message that greeted us on the staffroom whiteboard this morning:

"Please make sure that all signs of Christmas have gone by the end of the day".

So there you have it, Christmas is now well and truly over in school! (And I haven't got to open any presents yet!!)

I think I might have just found the coolest game!! Don't know if you remember the game Operation where you had to use tweesers to get bits out of a doll's body without touching the sides else it'd buzz? Well I found it (in Asda of all places), but a 3 ft long, blow up version of it! You have to pull out a card to decide what you're fishing for, then you have to put your arm in the hole and find the right object before the buzzer goes off! Genius! My class absolutely love it, and so do I!!!

Christmas at school

I don't know if this will bring back good or bad memories of time spent in primary schools, but this is what ours looks like now that we're getting into the mood for Christmas (although I think we're actually all just in the mood for the holiday that comes with it!!)

It's about a week until the Christmas play. We learned the last song today (yes, you could say it's cutting it fine, but at least it's fresh in their minds!!), the children know their lines, they are bringing in their costumes, it all almost seems to be falling into place. (you just know I'm about to tell you something that's gone wrong!). I was sitting in my room with the 'band' in the middle of literacy, practicing their parts (even they know what they're doing now), when I decided to show them the programmes (is it actually program?!) with their names on - just to give them a bit of a boost. As I was looking at the programme I suddenly realised I couldn't see the lead character's name at the top of the list. So I carried on looking down it, and it wasn't there! And we'd started selling them this morning! So now tonight me and one of the year two teachers who I'm having dinner with anyway, are going to be folding 200 new programmes. Wish I'd kept my mouth shut! (kind of)

Home group epitaths!!!

Last week at my home group, we started off with a really interesting and awkward exercise. We were all asked to write down what we would want written on our grave stone. Then we put the paper into a hat and randomly pulled them out and had to guess whose it was! So I thought I'd share some of the ideas people had - I wonder if you can guess which one is mine (I won't necessarily tell you if you're right, wasn't too impressed with mine, it was one of those annoying things when you're put on the spot and can't feel inspired!).

And now life begins.

Would have been good if they could be bothered.

Lived with integrity.

Lived and laughed.

Sought Jesus.

Made a difference.

Followed His path.

Sweet Memories

I was talking to a friend today about Christmas and got to sharing memories about how we used to celebrate it as children. It was so nice going down memory lane and thinking about Nepal again - hadn't really done that in a while. It's weird, sometimes life in England seems so normal and everyday now that it's like I've been here forever, almost as if Nepal never happened, and then I get into conversations like today when I remember that life used to be so different! It's been almost 14 years since we came back - but when I sit and think about it, the memories are still incredibly fresh.

Anyway, it was nice to share the memories of Christmas with someone's who were completely different (not that her's were typically English, she grew up in Albania), and to remember what used to happen in Nepal - church picnics, games and goat curry in Butwal....fireworks, random short termers and backpackers over for lunch in Kathmandu....sharing the Scandinavian celebrations in Butwal (fighting over who would be Santa Lucia!)....long distance phone calls back to England on Christmas Eve or Day - whenever the connection worked!....Nativity plays in Nepali at our church in Butwal (one in particular stands out where the star moved on a pulley across the ceiling of the church, but got stuck - all the characters were frozen, staring at it for ages before they got it moving again!).......Nepali Christmas carols - one in particular is going round my head at the moment (aha khoti ramilo khoosi kho din ayo.....I used to love that one!).

Ok, so it's quite a random post, but I thought I'd share the memories!!!